On Saturday 18th April the school hosted our annual Junior Debating Mace. It was a great success and we were delighted to see so many of our younger students taking part, with 24 students from 1st to 3rd year representing the Green, competing alongside teams from other schools in Dublin.

Over the day, all the debaters tackled three challenging topics; This House Would Pay Students for Good Grades, This House Would Ban Photoshopping in Advertising and This House Believes Violence in Movies, TV Shows, Computer Games and all Visual Media is Harmful to Society. At the end of the day the top four teams, Loreto Beaufort A, Loreto Beaufort B, Clonkeen College and Wesley College broke to the final where they debated the topic This House Believes Public Figures Have No Right to Privacy.

There was an incredibly high standard of debating throughout the day and in the final. Congratulations to Maeve Ní Bhraonain and Sarah Hickey from Loreto Beaufort B who won the overall team prize, with Maeve winning the best individual speaker too.

Thank you to Ms Barrett and Mr Fitzgerald for facilitating us having the Mace in the school and the brilliant team of 5th, 6th and 4th years who helped out with numerous jobs on the day such as judging, tabbing and setting up the rooms. Finally thank you to Mr Mulligan for all his help and advice with planning the Mace over the past few months.

We hope all participants had an enjoyable and educational day and will continue debating in the future.